Capturing the spirit and psyche of the world's greatest city.
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Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Pizza and Times Square - How did we get here?

If there's one constant in New York life, one reliable anchor in the
tumult of existence here, it's pizza. Ever since the influx of Italian
immigrants in the early 20th century, this concoction of flat bread with
tomato sauce and cheese has become one of the staple items for all New
Yorkers, providing sustenance and comfort to the world's greatest city
for over 100 years. How this did happen? How did it conquer NYC? How
come NYC is pizza's city and we just eat in it? This segment from WNYC
radio explores why.

And talking about the anchors of NYC, no
place anchors our town more than Times Square. The crossroads of the
world in the center of the world, Times Square has been remade in the
last few years with the introduction of pedestrian plazas -- large
swaths of the public square where New Yorkers and tourists can roam free
and "chill" sans the threat of cars. This other segment from WNYC is
about the transformation of -- and caused by -- the new Times Square.

This
past weekend, the wife and I found ourselves in the Times Square area.
We got some ice cream and plunked ourselves at the public tables smack
dab in the center of the crossroads of the world to enjoy our treats.
There we were ... eating ice cream ... sitting on chairs, at a table ...
in the middle of friggin' Times Square! Reeled the mind at how
this isn't our parents Times Square. It's almost a cliche to say it now,
but the hookers, pimps, drug dealers, vagabonds, ruffians, porn
theaters, and dilapidated structures that used to populate the area are
truly gone, gone, gone. Now Times Square is a buzzing hive of tourists
and merchants, ablaze with LED screens advertising ... everything ... a
family friendly gathering place.

The transformation of Times
Square prove the old maxims: the old becomes new, the sleazy becomes
respectable, the rebel becomes the establishment. Like the old man said
in Chinatown, if something lasts long enough, it doesn't matter how
outrageous it's past: it becomes respectable.